Monday, November 18, 2013

Lessons from Yoga Class

Recently, I started taking a weekly yoga class with my wife,
Debbie, and daughter, Rebecca.This was
an opportunity to get some much needed exercise and to spend some time together
at an activity we wanted to do.Yoga is defined
in Webster’s dictionary as “a system of exercises for
attaining bodily or mental control and well-being” and involves a sequence of balancing
and stretching poses.Our class ranges
in age from preteens to older participants and is taught by a young women in
her 20’s.The session starts with some
relaxation focusing your mind on something you want to contemplate during the
class.This is followed by a series of
poses involving bending parts of your body, while keeping other parts
straight.My first experience I was positioned
next to a youngster that was very flexible…I found out that my body has long
ago lost that bit of flexibility.

As my body is creaking and groaning, in my
mind, I began to picture the life cycle of a tree.When a tree is a sapling, it tends to be more
flexible and have an ability to bend easily (like the youth next to me) in the
wind.As the tree matures, the trunk
broadens the tree becomes more rigid and less flexible (like myself). But is this something that manifests itself in
body only?Children have a way of
looking at the world with bright wide open eyes, where every new experience is
a wonder to them.Their minds are open
to take in all that they perceive.How
many times as a child have you told your parents of some wonderful new
discovery and their responses shut down that avenue for you, couched in some
reasoning that made no sense?Have we in
turn done the same to our children?I
remember early in my career working with some people (that were closer to my
age now) in an Accounts Receivable department, laughing at me when I tried
showing them how a computer could help them.Time and technology moved forward, but these people had become rigid in
their approach.The older we become, the
more set in our ways we are and less open to newer thoughts and ideas.

“Bend forward and touch your nose to your
knees while keeping your leg straight.”This next instruction woke me from my wondering thoughts, as I could see
my knee, but like the mighty oak, there was no bending going on from me.While I made light of the situation, inside I
felt frustrated that my body had reached this state.I realized that I am not ready to give up on
my flexibility, in either my body or my mind.After the class was over, I asked the instructor if there was a chance
that I could become more “bendy” in the future.“Yes,” she answered, “after a few months of practicing.”There is a Yiddish word, bashert, which in
its simplest translation means “meant to be”. Initially, taking up Yoga was meant to be a
family activity, but I guess it was meant to be a chance to engage in a healthy
exercise routine and an opportunity for working on myself to become more
flexible in mind, body and soul.